


if the end comes (don't let us hear it)

by Kandakicksass



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Corvo POV, DOTO-compliant and ignores all of the fuckery with Daud's characterization, Human Outsider (Dishonored), M/M, Post-DotO, Royal spy!Outsider, SPOILERS FOR DEATH OF THE OUTSIDER., Sort-of-friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-18
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-31 03:46:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12123849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kandakicksass/pseuds/Kandakicksass
Summary: "He comes in like a ghost in the fall of 1854."***When the Outsider is freed from the void, he goes to Dunwall. Corvo finds him.





	if the end comes (don't let us hear it)

**Author's Note:**

> If there are any glaring mistakes, feel free to point them out and I'll fix them. I wrote this on mobile at work today and have tried to give it several run throughs before posting but as always one set of eyes is rarely enough.

He comes in like a ghost in the fall of 1854.

Corvo is not young any longer by any stretch of the imagination. His hair is even more speckled with white than it had been when Delilah had thrown her coup, and though his body is tightly wound with muscle it is also heavily scarred. He's strong, from habit and a nail-biting anxiety that keeps him ready to fight for his life even when none come for it. He is still the Royal Protector, though the members of his guard tend to call him "the old man" more than Lord Protector these days.

Emily has tried to get him to step down multiple times - though he is still fit for the job, he is also tortured by it. She wants him to live a comfortable life, one he deserves.

Corvo wouldn't know how to live a comfortable life. He's never had one.

So, when he comes, it's almost a welcome addition to the court life and stress Corvo is under. When he comes, it's almost familiar.

It's strange, how he looks the same and different at the same time.

The Outsider smiles at him from the street as he passes by. Corvo's standing on the back of Emily's carriage as she travels for the day, a sword in hand as he scans the crowd for troublemakers. He doesn't know what to make of the smiling face he sees. He thinks it's because of the eyes. Pale green like nothing he's seen this side of Pandyssia.

He wants to stop the procession to go meet him, to shake him until he gives Corvo an explanation. Corvo has never seen him outside of the void, but this... this is not the void. The space around him isn't twisted the way it usually is. He is just standing, on the street, a year and a half after Corvo's Mark went dead and still on his hand.

He doesn't do any of the things he wants to do. Instead, his eyes widen - the Outsider knows that Corvo sees him, judging by the way his smile spreads on his cheeks - but then Corvo looks pointedly away. He'll find him again, if he's really in Dunwall. A boy who looks like the Outsider can't be hard to track down.

He glances back, before they turn the street corner. The Outsider is still standing there, smiling, as if he knows that Corvo will come for him.

***

Emily shoos him away when he asks her quietly if he can retire early the next night. She never complains when he asks for time off, though he only ever does to take care of Spymaster business, and she smiles at him when he leaves. To her right, Wyman squeezes her hand and wishes Corvo a good evening. Corvo wonders if he will ever walk Emily down the aisle toward Wyman's smiling face. He hopes he will.

He ventures onto the street just before sunset with little more than a pistol, a sword, and his coat. It's starting to get colder at night, though Dunwall is always cold, the way Karnaca is always hot.

He makes his way first to a pub that he knows runs a black market on their second floor. The barkeeps act cagey when he visits, but the shop managers know his face. Some of them sold to him when Delilah took over. None of them worry when he comes around. They know his type.

"I'm looking for a newcomer," he says to the barkeep. "A boy with green eyes and dark hair. Thin, and pale."

The barkeep narrows her eyes at him distrustingly. She is forever concerned he's come to charge her for the secret business she hides. One day, perhaps he'll set her straight. Until then, her worry for her own business keeps her answering his questions as quickly and honestly as possible, just to get him out of the building.

"There was a man," she tells him without hesitating. "Don't know if I would call him a boy. His eyes see too much."

Definitely the boy he's looking for, then.

"Do you know where he is?" Corvo questions. "Where he's staying?"

"He only came around for a moment to talk to my… associates. He should be staying in one of the inns or hostels nearby."

There are three within walking distance. One is called the Whalesong Inn. Corvo doesn't want to call the Outsider predictable, but if he knew Corvo would come looking for him, the obvious answer would be the best.

"Thank you," he tells the barkeep. She reminds him of Lydia.

She doesn't respond verbally, but she gives him a wary nod and watches when he leaves. Probably to make sure he doesn't snoop around.

The Whalesong Inn is three blocks away, and he walks them with his sword in hand. It's not the best neighborhood, and he doesn't look like he's in his prime any longer. To those who don't know who he is, he would look like an easy target in his fine (though simple and practical) clothes.

He steps into the Inn, scanning the room. None are the boy he's looking for.

The Innkeeper is washing a table to the left and he crosses the room to speak to him.

"Excuse me," he says gruffly. He describes the Outsider again, and is gratified when the innkeeper nods.

"Quiet boy," the man tells him. "He's upstairs. Third room on the right." Then he pauses. "You're not here to make trouble, are you?"

"No trouble. He's... an old friend."

The innkeeper gestures for him to go on and Corvo walks upstairs slowly. His heart would pound if he were less of the man he is. He's been through too much for this to get him riled up. There is a certain kind of tension in his body, though, and when he knocks even his jaw is clenched.

The Outsider opens the door.

"Come in, Corvo." Corvo swallows, and does so. "I would offer you refreshments, but as you can see I have little besides water to offer."

"I don't need anything," Corvo tells him. He swallows again and the Outsider only looks at him, curious and waiting. The barkeep was right, Corvo realizes. He's always thought of the Outsider as a boy, but the person in front of him is a man. He somehow looks older than he had in the void, his face a little thinner, his shoulders more muscular. His eyes, as promised, see too much. Even his hair has grown, though it's nowhere near shaggy. It's neatly trimmed, like the rest of him.

If he looks closer, Corvo can see the cracks in his facade. His clothes are worn to the point of thinness in the knees. His boots are scuffed. His hands are red at the knuckles - scraped on something. Or someone. Corvo doesn't understand why he's trying so hard to appear normal. He never has before.

"Why are you here? What's happened?" When the Outsider merely gives him that small smile, he continues. "The Mark went quiet a year or so ago. I thought you'd lost interest in me."

At that, the Outsider speaks. "Never, dear Corvo." His tone is almost unbearably fond. "You, my best and brightest."

"Then what?"

The Outsider sits down on the bed, and gestures for Corvo to take the old wooden chair that faces him. He does.

"I am no longer a god," the Outsider announces, sounding almost pleased. Corvo stills entirely, even his breath caught. "Billie Lurk came to kill me, and instead gave me back my name. She freed me from the void." He spreads his hands as if presenting himself to Corvo. "I am as human as you are. Your Mark came from me, from my name - when she cut me from the void, she cut you off as well, and every other person on this planet that is Marked with my magic, the few that are left."

"Your name?" Corvo says, dumbfounded. "She gave... you have a name?"

The Outsider - or whoever he is now - laughs softly. "Did you think I was born and called Outsider from the beginning? That's the title I was given by the cultists. The name the void gave me." He pauses, expression wistful. "My mother named me Ilas, before she died. She gave me nothing but that, and after centuries, Billie Lurk returned it to me. I had forgotten it."

"Ilas," Corvo whispers aloud. The Outsider - Ilas - nods.

"I didn't come here to ask you for anything," Ilas tells him conversationally. "If you hadn't found me, I wouldn't have even sought you out. Still... it is good to see you. A familiar face."

Corvo wets his lips. "I would imagine most faces are familiar to you."

Ilas's grin shifts into a smirk. "A friend, then. If I can call you that."

Part of Corvo wants to say that he can't. The rest of him could never refuse. He's not a heretic and wouldn't say he ever was - but there's something tying him to the Outsider. Even now, to this man called Ilas who both is and isn't the leviathan who Marked him.

"What are your plans?" he asks instead of arguing. "In the city?"

Ilas hums. "I don't know that I have any. I've been doing odd jobs just to earn enough coin to get to Dunwall. I hadn't thought about what I'd do once I was here."

Corvo's head is spinning, but he still has some presence of mind. Enough at least to make an offer. "Perhaps you could work for me while you figure it out."

One of Ilas's eyebrows shoots up into his fringe. "Looking to have power over me this time, are you?"

Corvo would flush if he were younger. He isn't. "I'm always looking for eyes and ears in the city that I trust. I can set you up in an apartment, to save you the coin you're spending on this room. In return you would share what you learn on the streets with me and my associates."

Ilas is still smiling that damnable knowing smile. Corvo is relieved to see that piece of familiarity on a face that is in some ways entirely new. "I'll take you up on your offer, Corvo. It sounds interesting."

He sounds so much like the diety he was that Corvo can't help but snort.

Ilas continues to smile.

***

Ilas works for him for three months before he tells Emily the truth. She's grown curious, because he slips out at night more than he had when she was younger and sneaking around the city. She knows he's meeting someone and that he's never hidden a spy from her before.

Instead of trying to explain the whole mess to her, he brings Ilas to the tower to explain it himself.

He lets Ilas in past midnight. Emily has a meeting early in the morning, but she agreed to stay up for this.

"You've redecorated," Ilas comments innocently.

"Most of the building was wrecked when Delilah moved in," he says. "What was left was thrown out. Emily said it was time for a fresh start."

"I'd say she was right," he sighs, smiling crookedly at the new paintings and decorations lining the wall toward Emily's office.

When they step in, Emily doesn't even look up. She's taking the time to get work done, and Corvo wonders when she became such a studious empress. He wishes for one moment that she'd had the opportunity to be a normal young woman. He feels as if it's partially his fault that she was raised into this, that she was changed like this from the innocent girl she'd once been.

"This is Ilas," Corvo announces, coughing gently to warn her of their presence. She doesn't seem startled - she probably heard the door open even if she didn't show it. Ears like a bat. Corvo likes to think she got it from him.

Finally, she looks up. The pure shock on her face is satisfying in some distant way.

"Father -" Emily sputters. Ilas bows his head to her from where he's standing, behind and to the right of Corvo. Emily stands, her hands splaying over her desk. "You look... different." Her guard is up, but that doesn't surprise Corvo. She'd confided in him, after she freed him from the stone, that she'd met the Outsider. She had added with something akin to shame that she'd been Marked by him. Where Corvo had always been unwittingly fond of the Outsider even as he was frustrated by him, Corvo found that Emily was irritated with him much of the time and uncomfortably wary the rest. When she'd told him the story she'd learned about his origins, none of the pity Corvo felt was in her voice.

"He's human," Corvo says in a subtle attempt at placating her. "I saw him in the street months ago and sought him out."

"This is the spy you've recruited," Emily says, eyes still narrowed at Ilas's serene face. One day, that nearly smug look will get him in trouble. Corvo suspects that his human weaknesses are still theoretical in Ilas's mind.

"He needed work," Corvo explains. He winces at the fierce glare Emily gives him. "Em. He's clever and knows more about this city than anyone. I wasn't going to pass up the chance."

After a long moment, she sighs. "I don't know how I feel about this. I don't know how to feel about him. I never have."

Ilas steps forward. He doesn't move beyond arm's reach of Corvo. "Empress," he says gently. "I mean you no harm. I'm human now, as the Lord Protector says. I have more history than most but I am still mortal. I had no plans for my future when Corvo came to me and no ill will toward your city. The job sounded interesting and so I took it."

"There's no tricks up your sleeve? No riddles or games?" she asks skeptically. Corvo can't blame her. He wondered the same thing himself early on.

"None," Ilas promises. "I only wish to live the life I never got to have. If I'm taking Corvo's protection and aid to my advantage... I'm not the only street rat to do so."

He is not a street rat. Maybe once, but the thousands of years changed him. He may be human once more but he is no street urchin.

Ilas examines her face and his expression softens. "The only secrets I keep these days are for you, your highness. For your father."

Emily's tight shoulders relax. Corvo is surprised that they do. "So they are." She doesn't say anything else, but when she sits she continues to watch him. To examine the mystery that he still is, even after he's been thrown from the void.

Ilas knows that Emily needs more from him. He walks forward, pausing to make sure Corvo follows, and once he does Ilas goes to sit down in one of the soft chairs facing Emily's desk. It feels like an interview to Corvo, but Ilas is perfectly at ease. He begins talking with the fluidity of a storyteller, the way he always has.

Ilas is more honest than he was as the Outsider - he speaks with purpose and clarity, with none of the vague riddles Corvo remembers from the void. There is no future now that Ilas has to be wary of interfering in. The only future is the one he makes. Corvo imagines that it's freeing.

By the end of Ilas's explanation, there's something in Emily's face that's more than the distrust she'd started with. It's not pity, but perhaps closer to sympathy. This girl, who told him about a child sacrificed before he was even allowed to truly live without a twitch in her expression, looks as though she is seeing the Outsider for the first time. It's a different thing, he supposes, to feel empathy for a human being rather than a meddling God.

"You're really human again," Emily mutters to herself when Ilas finishes. "Just a normal person."

Ilas inclines his head. "Perhaps not normal, but mortal. For perhaps the first time."

Ilas has confided in him that does not remember anything of his first life beyond hunger, pain, and the moment that he became the Outsider. For him, this is like a new life. A new existence. Everyone he had known is long gone and he remains standing in a world he had only ever witnessed from the outside.

Corvo feels so protective of him sometimes that the strength of it baffles him.

Emily nods slowly. "You're welcome in my city, then. If you need anything, feel free to ask." When Ilas cocks his head to the side questioningly, Emily clears her throat. "I believe I owe you a debt, whether I like it or not. I accepted the gift you gave me of my own free will and that is the only reason my kingdom and father still stand, alive and well. So, if there is anything within reason that you need, you'll have it." She sounds begrudging, but Corvo knows that she'll keep her word.

"Thank you, Empress," Ilas says slowly, as if the words feel unnatural on his tongue, but there is some kind of undefinable emotion in his green eyes.

Ilas looks at Corvo, and his face is the face of a man who is realizing that he is alive at last.

***

It takes two more months for Ilas to miss one of their meetings. He is one of Corvo's most successful spies - he knows more than any other, sees more, understands how the bits and pieces of stories go together more than even Corvo does. When he doesn't arrive at their meeting and leaves no message, Corvo tells himself the unsettling feeling in his gut is just because he doesn't want to lose his main source of valuable information.

He knows his mind better than that. He is worried about the Outsider.

Corvo goes looking for him. Dunwall is a big city but Ilas has recurring haunts, most of them in gang territory and slums. That is where the secrets are. It's also where the danger is.

He searches for Ilas for hours and comes up with nothing. A last ditch attempt leads him to Ilas's apartment, though he only goes there to sleep.

He should have checked there first. Ilas is at his small kitchen table, one arm wound tightly around his stomach. The other looks broken and half his face is black and blue. His head is hung, though he must have heard Corvo breaking the lock and knob to get in.

Corvo wants to freeze up at the sight of him, but he doesn't. Instead, he walks forward and kneels before him, a ridiculous parody of the worshipping Ilas was probably used to, and he reaches up to lift Ilas's face into the light. His expression is so very neutral, but his eyes - the eyes that show more of his heart than they had ever before - are screaming.

Corvo shushes him before he can say a word. "We need to get that arm taken care of," he tells Ilas in a gruff voice. It takes effort to keep from sounding so gentle and concerned it would be revealing of more than Corvo feels comfortable acknowledging.

He takes Ilas back to the Tower, situating him in the empty guest room next to Corvo's. He calls on Emily's physician and when asked, tells her that Ilas belongs to him. There's no other explanation and Corvo lets her draw whatever conclusion she wants. Corvo is wary of disclosing Ilas's existence to the world. He has nightmares that the Abbey finds him, sees the now-absent blackness in his eyes, and connects his face to the countless paintings they have in their possession. Corvo dreams that they take him and that he can only watch while Ilas screams as he's dragged away.

The physician sets his arm - painfully, judging by the way his screaming eyes scream louder even though he doesn't make a sound - and checks the bruising on his side.

"Keep him inside and stationery," she advises before she leaves. "He's got at least two broken ribs, and those need to heal on their own. He looks flighty, so keep an eye on him."  
Corvo tells her he will and when she leaves he goes back to Ilas's side.

"They came out of nowhere," Ilas says tiredly. He's looking up at the ceiling, refusing to meet Corvo's eyes. "A group of gang members. I think they were just looking for easy prey and I didn't... I wasn't afraid. They didn't like that. I realize now I should have been."

"I can't imagine there was much to be afraid of when you were a god," Corvo reasons, quiet and unjudging.

"Not much," Ilas agrees on a sigh. He finally looks over at where Corvo is covering the hand of his unbroken arm with his own calloused palm. "Thank you for taking care of me."

Corvo shakes off his thanks. Within the hour, Emily makes her way to them. She knocks on the door and doesn't come in until Ilas calls for her to enter.

"I was warned you had a strange man broken and bleeding in the guest room," she tells Corvo, seemingly casual. He's relieved to see concern almost hidden in her dark eyes.

"A stranger man you've never had grace this bed, I'm sure," Ilas tells her in a tone that would be playful if he wasn't so exhausted.

Her mouth twitches in a grin. "I imagine not. You won't be leaving until you're better, Outsider. You'll hate that bed before you're healed."

She has trouble with his human name. He's still not-human enough to her that acknowledging that he's no longer the same being who Marked her is hard.

"At least it's more comfortable than my own," Ilas sighs. He doesn't sound put out about it.

Corvo eventually asks for descriptions of the men that beat him. Ilas tells him what he remembers, which isn't much. Emily comments that she can put some sort of order out to the guard that they should make trouble with the entire gang, but Ilas tells her not to with a frown.

"My ability to spy within those areas will be weakened if they put together your guard attacks and what they did to me. They'll know we're working together and I've put a lot of effort into making sure that they do not." Corvo's hand tightens on his. "Let it be, Empress. Corvo. There's no ground to be gained here."

So they let him heal, and while he's in the Tower Emily takes at least an hour a day to speak with him. Part of it is overcoming her instinctual fear of what he was, but the rest is because he knows things the historians don't. Ilas is human now but his memory has not withered. Corvo doesn't imagine it ever will. Ilas spins tales of the founding of the kingdom on the Isles, of the first Emperor to rule, of the war fought between Morley and Tyvia with Gristol right in the middle. Emily lives for his tales, for the anecdotes he has of her mother and grandfather and great great uncles. Family she never knew, family her mother hadn't the chance to tell her much about - all of it unravels before her eyes on Ilas's tongue.

Corvo always holds his hand as he speaks, with the hand that still bears the Outsider's Mark.

***

To their surprise, Ilas needs no convincing to give up his small apartment in the city for the no-longer-guest-room next to Corvo's own bedroom. When his arm is healed, he goes out into the night and they don't expect him back until his next meeting with Corvo. Instead, he comes back that evening with his usual sort of information and a small knapsack filled with his few possessions.

Ilas continues to operate outside of the tower for the most part, but more and more he stays in and writes history books for Emily, or sneaks in the background to gather information on visiting dignitaries.

Emily and Corvo say nothing about the fact that he spends every night in the Tower, though neither of them gave him a formal invitation to stay. Corvo is glad to realize that they didn't need words to make Ilas know that he's welcomed.

And Corvo does welcome him. They have private meals together at least five times a week. They go for walks and discuss work and the weather and the books Ilas is writing. They discuss magic and theory and the void. Corvo no longer holds his hand but hasn't stopped wanting to, and Ilas has no qualms with violating Corvo's personal space. They walk and their shoulders knock together. They sit and their knees touch.

Corvo hears the staff whisper sometimes, about how he's taken a much younger male lover. It would be more scandalous if he cared. He doesn't explain that Ilas is older than they will ever comprehend, or that he and Ilas haven't had sex. In some ways, they've been more intimate than sex allows for since they've met, so perhaps there's some merit to their claims. Either way, he doesn't ever correct them.

More often than not, Ilas joins Corvo, Emily, and Wyman for dinner. Wyman especially takes to Ilas with a fondness that surprises both their partner and Corvo. Ilas does not join them for state dinners, and more and more often Corvo has all five of his potential future replacements guard Emily in his stead so that he can dine with Ilas on those nights. He's been trying to get out of those dinners for years and feels no guilt about it.

Before he quite realizes what's happened, Ilas is a seamless and vital part of their day to day lives. Outside the walls of Dunwall tower, whispers grow about the missing God of the Void.

He is not missing. He is at home where he belongs.

Ilas tells him absently one day that he's saved Emily's life three times now. It's in the middle of relevant conversation, but Corvo stops him to think. His eyebrows furrow as he does.

“When you Marked me,” he begins to list slowly. “And when you Marked her. But what was the third time?”

Ilas raised an eyebrow. “Did you not know about this? I never told you?” Corvo confirms that he hasn't and Ilas looked genuinely surprised. “Delilah was a threat not once but twice. The first time she attempted to steal Emily's body from her and rule the Isles that way. I sent Daud after her as a sort of redemption quest. I ensured that the threat was taken care of - of course, Delilah found a way to thwart me, but the point remains. Three times.”

Corvo shouldn't be surprised. After they first crossed paths, Outsider’s meddling began to feel commonplace. This shouldn't be surprising news at all, but there is a warmth in his chest that comes from knowing that the Outsider was watching even when Corvo didn't know it.

***

It takes almost a full year for Corvo to kiss him. When he does, Ilas cups Corvo’s cheek and returns the soft pressure. He opens his mouth and draws Corvo in until he shivers and pulls away.

Ilas does not look surprised. His hand doesn't move from Corvo’s cheek. “You've wanted to do that for months and resisted. Why now?”

Corvo's mouth goes dry. “I thought you weren't all knowing anymore?”

Ilas gives him that small knowing smile Corvo feels as though he's known all his life.

“I don't need to be all knowing to know you,” he says. “So come, tell me. Why now?”

Corvo looks at him and hopes that the adoration he feels isn't naked in his eyes. “I just… realized it's okay to take what I want, for once. That you're staying. That there's no reason not to.” That's patently untrue - Corvo still lives in fear that the Abbey will come for Ilas, though every month that passes reduces that fear because he looks so human now. Still, Ilas doesn't call him on it.

Instead, he kisses Corvo again, and when Corvo tries to pull away to speak, Ilas knots a hand in his hair and refuses to let him. He figures that settles that, then.

There are still days when Corvo can't quite wrap his head around Ilas’s existence, days when he finds an old rune and is still confused when it doesn't hum for him. Ilas has not stopped being Other, and sometimes the screaming of whales still makes him cry. There are fewer slaughterhouses now, but that's because there are fewer whales.

There's evidence, if he looks, of the Outsider's disappearance. There is quiet panic on the streets and in the old parts of the city where shrines are springing up like daisies. The heretics, the real ones who pray to the Outsider instead of kiss him softly goodnight, are desperate for any signs that he's out there. There are areas where void magic is seeping through unfettered. Every time they hear about another one, Ilas frowns and looks concerned.

Perhaps it's selfish of both him and Ilas that they've never considered finding a way to send him back.

“I'm mortal now,” Ilas explains one night, laying on top of the covers of Corvo's bed. He looks pensive. “And this life is… good. It wasn't before, but ever since I came back it is.” He reaches out and presses his fingers to Corvo's mouth. He kisses the pads of Ilas’s fingertips. “You make me so desperate to be human, Corvo. Even when I was a God, something about you reached the part of me that wanted to be. I can't… I won't go back to that lonely existence, where all feelings are muted and everything is cold. I won't.”

Corvo shushes him. “I don't want you to go. I'm not asking you to.”

So they worry, sometimes, but mostly they live.

 


End file.
